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Monday, May 26, 2014

Continued Middle-Earth machinations...

More gradual work this weekend on the Causeway...

It's now glued to the base, and the main upright glued to the stair. I've started cutting out gullies into the base to further give the impressive of height in the stair columns. This has also allowed me to fashion the stony bridge section from bottom of the stairway across gully there.

I have decided I am going to make it corner-centric, and am going to back the structure in MDF and along its left side, so I can effect a rocky corner area, into which a gallery with pillars will be cut, for the goblins to shoot down from at the Fellowship as they flee down the stairs...as per movie...

I've also started cladding the lower areas in off-cut broken bits of poly I had left over... just to start to build up the structure and give it some texture...

I left it with the smaller side panels of MDF gluing , to give the base more strength...

I am still pondering how best to model flames and smoke in the gullies...

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So while that was drying I moved back on the the Khazad Dum board... I attacked the surface of the pink foam stuff with a box cutter knife, and quickly effected a rocky surface. In that respect this material is very easy to work with.

I then also started to clad the sides of the board with more MDF, again for structural strength of the board.... and left that drying too... one side at a time as the PVA glue dries... though had to re-clamp down the end top surface to get a better fit after further trimming down the end piece of foam.

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Back to modelling, and I decided that my Hobbit ale cart drivers would probably want a little comfort for their journey, so I fashioned a broad cushion out of greenstuff for the seat. This actually allowed me to push the hobbits into it, to allow their seating posture and angle to look better, more upright... I've also based the cart on a 60mm MDF round base, 3mm thick, and sand textured it.

And showing the hobbits in place. I plan to paint the cart and hobbits separately, and glue the hobbits into place at the end. This will allow me to try and freehand some words on the cart plaque behind their seat. That's the bit I am not looking forward to as my freehand skills are not the best...

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Oh, and if you hadn't guessed, I've also moved on to the next model painting requirement for the Fellowship campaign; the Uruk-Hai Scouts... a boxed set of 24 plastic figures up first for starters... I've also got a handful of metal ones and Lurtz in the stripping jar from 2nd hand purchases... and am thinking of getting Vrasku and Mahur done at the same time, while I am working on the Uruks...

Making steady progress with these guys... they are fairly easy to do - dark armour, shades of brown and gray throughout and the majority wear full face helmets so no having to spend ages getting the faces right!

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Back to terrain and the Watcher board, and my tales of woe... I am frustrated to heck that the bit I had expected to be the easy bit to finish it off, pour the water... has caused the most grief!

The Golden brand acrylic resin had dried but not clear, it was still opaque white over most of the water area. I am guessing this has either been because the layer applied was too thick or there was too much humidity as it dried, or both. To try and fix this I decided to try heating it with a heat gun... Whilst at first I thought this was going to work, suddenly the resin ballooned up off the surface, then shrank back down as heat was removed, drying in an awful wrinkly mess...

I let it dry, then tried peeling off the top surface, cutting slits in it and peeling bits back... then one piece came away thickly, lifting the whole resin thickness, exposing the base foam layer underneath... "Bollox!" I thought, and pulled... and the whole lot came off... back to square one!

So I have resurfaced this foam base in paint and glue to seal it, added pebbles and gravel and twigs to effect fallen logs, branches in the water etc...

Having watched again some of the Terranscape videos on Youtube, I have ordered some Envirotex Lite and some colouring pigment translucent dyes, and some Liquitex Gloss Gel Medium. The first product is poured in layers to effect water depth. The last product will effect a wavy surface ripple.

I am going to keep the Mod Podge for the river sections and redo those with a more realistic surface texture - I hope!

With luck I may have the Watcher Board finished for next weekend... fingers crossed!

PS - Bugger, just checked the stash - I don't have Vrasku afterall! Another one to source...

Thanks Brian! Yes it can be tricky to get right, and I think its been the damp conditions here in autumn that have been the problem... not warm like summer, yet not really cold enough top start running the 'central heating'...

The causeway is looking great I'm glad you're not trying to rush it. But what will you do with it after you've played that on scenario? I've feared for your watcher in the water board but following that terranscapes video seems best.

Thanks... Ah ha, that great question of our time! Truth is I have no idea myself - it will probably become known as 'Bowmans Folly' ! ;-) it will probably occupy a corner of the games room .... I just feel compelled to build it for some reason.. one of those iconic movie moments that just does it for me I guess! I have come up with an idea to make the flames at the bottom after doing a bit of googling - I'll be digging out my LEDs again and using them with some water effect resin... hopefully it will work...

I'm quite pleased with how the Watcher board has worked out so far, though it has grown somewhat from my original idea, as I got a little carried away with the Woodland Scenics products, but its certainly interesting... I had been keeping it back as a big 'unveiling' - but the water resin stuffed me up and delayed the whole thing by weeks... hopefully if these new products work out, I'll get back on track...

Many thanks - I will probably use a combination of 'blu-tac' and small stair sections upside down under the models to match the stair they are standing on so the figures can stand level... that's the plan!

Thanks Gav! I have been somewhat inspired myself by a certain "Celevue" on TheOneRingForum... both his Terrain WIP thread and also accompanying gaming campaign thread. He's done some impressive stuff, which has made me try and 'lift my game' recently... Thanks for your confidence, I do hope to return to Victoriana at some point and at least complete my EotD board... The Prussian project came off the idea of 4 of us locals getting together to do some GASLIGHT inspired gaming... Only Joe, when full tilt ahead with it, out of all of us, culminating I wonder in possibly 'burn out' when getting half way into his colossal VSF walker build... his blog has been ominously quiet for many months... I managed my 30-odd Prussians but never got round to making anything more adventurous of a mechanical nature... I believe Roly managed a small quantity of troops of 'mexican frenchies' IIRC and a couple of small contraptions... I never heard of any progress from Greg... at the time I flitted off into FoW and EotD and wound up back in MiddleEarth... keeping hobby gamers on target? You've got more chance of herding cats! ;-)

I forget how just how many projects you have on the go at any one time. at least you're following through on your one game focus and delving deeply in middle earth only. I wish I could be so focused. I'm looking forward to the grand unveiling of the watcher board!Good luckSte

Thanks Ste! I must admit I actually find it good to have a few things on the go at once as you rarely waste time - while you are waiting for paint or glue to dry on one thing, you can be working on something else and so on... only thing is you need a bit of space to spread it all out... just got to be careful I don't commandeer the kitchen bench too often - I tend to get slapped for that! ;-) The Envirotex arrived yesterday :-) Just need to find some suitable measuring and mixing containers, now... Hopefully won't be too long now :-)

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About Me

Long time gamer, starting with D&D basic set, as a pre-teen, way back in early 80's, though I no longer find time for RPGs. Now mostly a war-gamer and miniature painter and terrain maker. I am not the best table top tactician, but enjoy all the hobby offers; painting, terrain making and gaming.

Huge fan of Tolkien and MiddleEarth, and after LOTR movie trilogy was released, visited NZ with my wife Tracey. Liked it so much we emigrated there in '05. We have two great kids Chris and Becky.

Finished my first bit of new kit for Konflict '47... the German Spinne (Spider) Light PanzerMech. A light recce walker with Light AT g...

Wargaming

In terms of gaming and figure collecting I prefer the 28mm scale for just about all periods; ancients, medieval, pike and shot, horse & musket, WWII and fantasy/Sci-Fi. Its just a nice size figure to paint, for the detail without being excessive in size, nor too fiddly to handle.

Most pictures on this blog can be enlarged for viewing by clicking on them. Where a blog post has an embedded video, and you wish to view a picture in that post, right click on picture and view in new tab or window, and this should keep video playing too.

Please note, whist I have not gone down any formal copyright procedure route in terms of this blog and its content, if you wish to use something from it, either pictures of models I have painted or games in action, or written content, just drop me a line, and ask first. Its the decent thing to do!